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Released From Blackground, JoJo Signs Deal with Atlantic Record

After seven drawn-out years and a long legal battle, JoJo has finally been released from her contract with Blackground Records, according to the LA Times. She has in turn signed a new deal with Atlantic Records, where she’ll release her third album.

Last July, having been long-forbidden from releasing new music commercially, JoJo filed a lawsuit demanding to be released from the label and its imprint Da Family Records. In the suit, she claimed that she had turned in a completed third album that never saw release and that producers and "other vendors" were never paid. She also cited a New York and California law that stipulates that contracts signed by minors must be renegotiated after a period of seven years. Now free from label-limbo, she is working on her third album (take two!) for Atlantic.

Despite being stuck in label-purgatory since her sophomore album The High Road -- which included the massive "Too Little Too Late" -- was released in 2006, JoJo has released a couple of mixtapes and a handful of loosie-singles that have not only maintained her relevancy, but proven the former teen star to be a force in the adult R&B world. Speaking with MissInfo after this summer's vitaminwater and The FADER #uncapped series performance, she explained, "I know why the caged bird sings, because she freakin' has to."